Join the Hunger Walk
by Bailey Basham, Messenger Staff Writer
For the seventh year in a row, the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club will sponsor the annual Hunger Walk to benefit local organizations addressing food insecurity on the Mountain.
At last year’s walk, which had both in-person and virtual components to protect against COVID-19, the community raised $45,000 to support the work of the Community Action Committee, an outreach program dedicated to fighting poverty and hunger in rural Appalachia, Morton Memorial United Methodist Church and the Grundy County Food Bank.
This year, David Goodpaster, director of the Community Action Committee, said the team currently has more than $20,000 in pledges as of this writing. It is the goal of the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club to raise $50,000 this year.
According to Feeding America, there are roughly 6,000 food insecure people in Franklin County alone, which equates to about 14 percent of the county’s residents. And according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 25 percent of Tennessee’s children are at risk of going hungry.
The Hunger Walk was initially created to raise awareness about issues of food insecurity and funds to support the local organizations that help combat the issue, but Goodpaster said in the years since its creation, it has become even more.
“I’m so happy to have the support we have throughout this community and with the University and just throughout the plateau. It really showcased the goodness of the people here,” Goodpaster said. “I think one thing that this pandemic has shown is that we can all experience down times regardless of where we find ourselves.”
This year’s hybrid walk will be a weeklong event, beginning with a virtual walk from Sept. 18 to Sept. 24 and culminating with an in-person walk and celebration at 8 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 25.
For more information about the Hunger Walk and to donate, visit <www.thehungerwalk.com>.